HAVING SOLD OVER 30 million albums and achieved commercial success across the world, there is little doubt that Coldplay are one of the most popular British bands of the last decade. The band met, formed and began their career whilst studying at UCL, a fact the institution is keen to remind students of. Here they speak to Lester S. Thompson about their Freshers’ Week.
CG: So we all know the official version of how you all met up playing guitar in a stairwell, but what really brought you together during that eventful week in late September?
Johnny Buckland (Guitar): “Well I was walking down the corridor offering to make cups of tea for people, when this douche [motions to a grinning Chris Martin] pokes his head out of his doorway and offers me a speedball. How could I refuse?”
Chris Martin (vocals): “The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur but we spent most of it listening to Throbbing Gristle and discussing Middle-Eastern politics whilst playing Resident Evil.”
CG: Do you have any particularly fond memories of your Freshers’ Week?
Will Champion (Drums): “Probably when my 2nd year mentor introduced me to the world of hard drugs. Until then I’d only sniffed the odd marker pen or two so I had some doubts. But I thought, ‘Hey, what would Nikki Sixx do?’ It didn’t take me long to shoot up after that and besides, it would have been rude not to.” [laughter]
Guy Berryman (Bass): “Oh yeah, we used to play this game where we would challenge Tim Rice-Oxley [a fellow Ramsay Hall resident and vocalist of Keane] to do a shit in every shower of Rome block. Good times, man, Good times.”
Johnny Buckland: “Maaaan… some of those hangovers. It was quite an experience to sit through an Amnesty meeting on the politics of East Timor knowing that when you got back to your room there was a whole tarpaulin covered in blood, shit and Amyl nitrate bottles to dispose of.”
CG: Sounds wild, so do you think Freshers’ Week influenced your sound in any way?
Chris Martin: “Other than bringing us together in a Bacchanalian orgy of drugs, women and money, I think the only thing it really made us do was drop the heavy metal umlaut from Cöldplay.”
Coldplay’s next album, Sniff Glue and Worship Satan, is out later this year on EMI.